disliking the most common ship

aro/aspec 🤝 mlm/wlw

I had a BRAIN BLAST on the way home today. So!

In the category of Readers Who Get To Do What They Want:

(CW for dark Simon, johnny, and “reader” with unhealthy relationship dynamics, gaslighting - not from who you suspect - and threats of violence)

A pair of identical twins who are basically opposites from birth. Twin 1 is obviously favored by their parents for being the “easy” twin that tries to appease them and keep the peace. Twin 2 a little hellion from birth, they think this kid is basically broken. Try to test for psychopathy but nope, their own kid has just picked up on the accidental favoritism from birth and just seems to dislike their own parents. But they still love their twin.

The twins grow up as complete opposites. Different social circles, hobbies, interests, clothes, attitudes. They’re incredibly close, but twin 2 will (and has) gotten violent on twin 1’s behalf because their parents are raising them to be “well behaved”.

By teen years, twin 2 is being sent to the countryside most summers to be handled by the grandparents. (Jokes on them, farmlife is nice and the grandparents aren’t exactly strict - mostly because twin 2 actually likes them and doesn’t see much need to rebel).

Meanwhile twin 1 is doing summer programs and learning arts, developing this intense aversion to conflict and has trouble standing up for themself. Especially without twin 2 there to lean on.

Come university, their parents insist on twin 1 staying close by for uni, essentially make the choice for them. Twin 2 decides to ship out of the country and plans on breaking off all contact. (Maybe due to some sort of unforgivable drama at the grandparents’ funeral?)

Before leaving, twin 2 gives twin 1 a burner phone with one number programmed in. Promises that if twin 1 ever needs to disappear, to be free of it all, they can call and twin 2 will be there in a heartbeat with bolt cutters for those chains. And then they just sort of… disappear.

Twin 1 doesn’t see them for *years*. Never uses that phone but keeps it.

So twin 1 lives their quaint pre-determined life with their acceptable job and it’s all mostly okay. Not bad at all. Quiet, if lackluster.

And then Simon comes along. Simon, who takes one look at this little angel and decides they have to be his. Theyre too good, too soft, unable to take care of themselves properly in this big scary world. And after all he’s suffered, doesn’t he deserve something sweet to protect? And hell, Johnny could use a kind touch every now and then too.

So he “seduces” twin 1 (aka, the dark!Simon move of just deciding someone is his and acting like it whether they like it or not). Manipulates them into stepping right into their own collar and leash, with him at the other end.

It’s too late by the time Twin 1 realizes what they’ve become - this man’s pretty pet. An agreeable little doll for him and his teammate to play house with. It’s not always bad, but it’s suffocating and scary. They feel trapped; they are.

It takes months until they get enough privacy to dig the old phone out of the place they nearly forgot about it.

Twin 2 picks up on the third ring.

In the intervening years, twin 2 has gotten into all sorts of trouble and mayhem. Become the demon their parents always accused them of being. Has, somehow along the way, joined up with KorTac and gotten all their files scrubbed. “Twin 2” no longer exists to the world at large. Nothing that anyone, even Kate Laswell, could dig up.

They get the call from their twin and break their contract on the spot. Get on a flight within hours. Sneak their twin out of the homey prison they’ve been locked up in.

Take twin 1 to a sunny, public cafe and get the story through their sibling’s nervous stuttering. Gets angrier and angrier with the more they hear, eyes fixated on the thin leather collar around their twin’s throat.

“Please just… I know it’s selfish and I’m sorry, but-”

Twin 2 already has a plan. They have a quiet, cozy cabin with comfortable funds in a rural part of Canada. Twin 1 will go there, rest and recover and be free. Twin 2 will take their place with Simon and Johnny to throw off suspicion and searches.

The scars from living the life they have? No worries. twin 2 will stage a car accident, reopen some of them to make it seem legit. Lie about head trauma to account for any lapses in their twin 1 act.

It’s decided within three hours. Twin 2 sends their sibling off to the airport and sets everything into motion. They’ve been dying to do something like this for years, after all the times their sibling stuck by their side and tried to stick up to them, to no avail.

Twin 2 instantly hates that fucking collar. Lets Simon put it on but not without the most dark look at the wall, thinking of all the ways to break his hands. Fingers twitching by their side.

The boys sit them down to watch scary movies because they always think it’s fun to spook twin 1 and fuck them while they’re all tense and shivery and but twin 2 is just watching, almost bored. Makes a few attempts to fake jump but keeps forgetting because all their focus is on not slamming a hand into someone’s dick for grinding on them.

Pretends to be asleep in the big bed they’ve been herded into when they kick Johnny or Simon off in the middle of the night. Purposefully aims for soft spots and bruises.

They try to act like twin 1 for a bit but the persona is so difficult to keep up when every little condescending comment from Simon or Johnny makes them want to start stabbing. The inside of their mouth is all torn up from biting onto their cheek and running their tongue over their teeth to resists snarling and snapping.

One day they’re going to snap… and it’s going to be so good to see these bastards bleed.

Hello everyone, today I'll do something never before seen on the flames and darkness liveblog which is read TWO chapters!! Idk man, i havent been able to read more than one chapter at a time recently because this book suddenly turned into such a slog to get through, although granted that might also just be my mental illness making it more difficult. whatever, i'll be in treatment for that next week

Anyway, today I'll be reading chapter 44 which is the star fall chapter, and chapter 45 which is. a chapter. Knowing this book series nothing of note is gonna happen in that one but that wont stop me from reading it

Chapter 44

Okay, theyre mentioning Feyre not looking so emancipated amymore and it made me remember all the weird weight shit from the start of this book. Like, she was losing weight because she was throwing up all the time and then not eating a lot and everyone was constantly remarking on that and it was unbelievably uncomfortable, but then when Feyre officially joined the night court and everyone immediately stopped talking about it, it almost feels a little manipulative, if that makes sense. Like, this book is ostensibly about Feyres healing journey but the Night Court cannot, under any circumstances, have anything negative associated with it so her trauma basically just disappears so we dont have to see the unpleasant parts of her recovery, she has one (1) nightmare after she starts living there permanently, one (1) moment where she feels too depressed to leave the bed and a few moment where she acts out but then immediately feels bad for it every time

Ughhhhh Feyre is wearing a dress for this which is really frustrating but you guys already know how I feel about that so shant go into that much more detail on this

I swear Im not just saying this to be a hater, Feyres dress sounds so tacky too

yoooooooo is Cassian implying he'd like to wear a tacky ass dress too??

and yet hes just wearing a BLACK TUNIC bro Feyre is literally covered in diamonds from head to toe so she can look like a shooting star or whatever and Cassian doesnt even have the decency to wear a black tunic that glitters or something?? Or hell, maybe even a red tunic to match his siphons, idk, give me SOMETHING im gonna tear my fucking hair out

Feyre is wondering about the IC being her friends and its like, girlie theyre barely even each others friends and youve known each other for maybe half a year to their 500 years

Feyre is describing Azriel hungrily staring at Mor's ass and it reminded me of that one bonus chapter Ive seen discussions about where he's really horny about Elain in a way thats pretty uncomfortable, and a lot of ex-Elriels say that it made them stop liking the idea of the ship because thats when they realized that SJM was just gonna mutilate both of their characters for the sake of smut, but honestly I dont think she would even need to mutilate Az that much

I could not give less of a shit about the Mor/Cassian/Azriel drama but I have to admit its kinda funny reading about Feyre speculating so much about Mor's relationships knowing shes gonna turn out to be interested in women

Mor says that Rhysand was very upset after she had sex with Cassian and beat him up as hard as he could (#incest) but she says he wasnt upset because of her virginity but because of the danger she put herself in by losing it, which is like, first of all that seems like splitting hairs, he was still upset that she lost her virginity even though that was none of his business. And second of all, I think it would actually make sense for him to have the kind of archaic sexist beliefs that would make Mor losing her virginity upsetting to him, considering he was also 17 when that happened just like Mor and Im guessing there wasnt anyone around to teach him feminism. or maybe hes so feminist he came out of the womb believing in womens rights and didnt need to be taught anything

god, the inner circle dynamics are so comically fucked up I have no idea how they can stand being around each other

Again, Im not much of a Feylin girlie but "Your hair looks... clean." >>>>>>>>>>>>>> "You look like a women again." (???? whats thag even supposed to mean)

So Rhysand is not wearing a black tunic, but he is wearing wearing a black jacket which is equally disappointing. atleast he has his tits out i guess

Rhysand was gone for 50 years and yet his best friends are not spending any time with him at their first party together since theyve been seperated, thats what i call friendship goals

Yeah, I guess its kinda sad that Rhys missed out on important holiday that meant a lot to him while undr the mountain but you know who else had to do that? Literally everyone that wasnt from the spring court

So he doesnt wanna tell his friends, who are by all accounts doing alright because theyve spent the past few decades trapped in a beautiful idyllic city, about his trauma but hes perfectly fine traumadumping on a twenty year old woman who just started to recover from her own trauma

Maybe Im just in a bad mood but this bullshit where theyre getting covered in star spirits or whatever feels so joyless to me, like its not whimsical or fun to me

Okay so, Ive heard about Rhysand calling Feyre exquisite and it made me cringe just thinking about it, but it looks like theyve translated that to him calling her 'herrlich' which means the exact same thing but it sounds a lot less weird and bad. once again, thank you, Alexandra

Feyre really just said "You regret sexually assaulting me? But why?" huh

Chapter 45:

Okay, thats the end of the chapter but theres two more things that kinda annoyed me that I didnt feel the need to mention as I was reading. 1) Feyre kept going on and on aboht Rhysand being her friend, it felt so insincere, its like sjm say a post online right before she started writing this chapter that was like "in the best relationships, your partner isnt just your partner but also your best friend" and decided to put that sentiment in her book, and 2) I felt like there were so many moments towards the end of that chapter where Feyre is like "oh, ive never felt this way with anyone" and its very obviously alluding to how she didnt love Tamlin as much as she does Rhysand now, and it was just very strange to read, like Tamlin was haunting the narrative even though hes not even dead yet

Uhm. so i got really tired all of a sudden so I took a nap at this point and read some gay vampire fanfic to rejunivate myself and now Im ready for whatever happens in the next chapter

"I was a traitor. [...] Even though I oficially left Tamlin - it was only two months ago, after all. By Fae standards that was probably barely more than a day." Oh yeah, i havent been keeping track of the time thanks for reminding me that this story about immortals is moving at a breakneck pace for no goddamn reason. But also, as an author trying to write a grand long-lasting romance, why would you write this. I know Feysand are gonna get married at the end of book and now when I get to that point Im not gonna be thinking "wowwww such romance" Im gonna be thinking "damn these bozos did the fae equivalent of getting eloped in vegas after knowing each other for barely a week"

Oh, men of all ages are training at this camp? would you say some of them are. child-aged

Feyre is being all "its so cold here, im freezing in my illyrian leathers I cant imagine a child with no clothes surviving here for a single day, much less eight years" (referring to Cassian) and yet she doesnt spare a single thought to all the children who have to be at this camp as well because this is the camp that the batboys grew up in, its not like this is a different kind of camp where they dont train children

God I hate Feyre thinking about how fuckin powerful the batboys are especially because its like, Rhysand is literally their high lord, he already holds so much power over the guys running this camp we dont need a reminder that he could easily crush their minds or that his goons need more syphons to contain the totality of their power or whatever

I get that these guys are like, shitty misogynists or whatever, but I dont think Rhys throwing them out of the house they live in is some #boyboss move hes just being an asshole

Rhysand would never want to lock Feyre in a house for protection, but he does want to decapitate anyone who lays a hand on her which is soooooo much better

Rhysand keeps calling the.... "females" of this camp "girls" which implies one of two things: 1) hes talking about adult women, hes just calling them girls, which is not very feminist of our feminist king, or 2) hes talking about actual girls aka children which. thank god for our feminist king having equal-opportunity child soldiers

Its actually kind of surreal how theyre at the camp where the batboys spent their CHILDhoods and Feyre keeps talking about what it mustve been like for Cassian while the narrative is actively avoiding talking about children being at the camp at this present moment while also not outright stating "there are no kids here at this present moment"

"'[The clipping of the wings is] to ensure the safety of their women, they said.'" this reminds me of something @/kateprincessofbluewhales said in regards to Rhysand forcing illyrian women to train but not doing anything else to advance their rights, which is that the wing clipping mightve started as a way for men to help women dodge the 'draft' that seems to be mandatory for all healthy illyrians. I dont really have anything else to say about that, it just popped into my head and i thought it was interesting

Rhysand is talking about how at some of the camps, women are declared anti-marriage material if they train and how he cant do anything about that and its like, even if these women are not officially declared unmarriable or whatever, the misogynistic men that make up these camps are probably not gonna wanna marry a women who trains, so what difference does that really make

Also, he says the only thing he could do about 'laws' like that is to murder the warlords and take their children/trainees? under his wing and I guess he thinks he would have to do that for every camp that does that but honestly, I think just doing it once or twice would send a powerful enough message to discourage other warlords from being misogynistic. And he wouldnt have to raise all these children all by himself either, Im sure he could get the help of a few non-sexist men or even, gasp, some women. Like those priestesses living in that library Im sure some of the ones that have already recovered from their trauma somewhat wouldnt mind teaching some boys about the harm that misogyny does

Okay so the blood rite is called a Blutritual [blood ritual] in german which is a little confusing because a ritual is a pretty specific thing and I dont think the blood rite is that specific thing but whatever, it sounds cool enough

Ive said this before, I am not a Tamlin girlie, at best I prefer him to Rhysand, and I dont like or trust Rhysand at all, but imagine hearing that tragic story about how their families killed each other, leaving them as the only survivors and being like "I cant believe Tamlin killed Rhysands family!!" especially when its like, the only person Feyre actually knows Tamlin killed is Rhysands dad who sucked ass, its not exactly a great loss

I feel like i had a lot of thoughts about a lot of things in this chapter that I couldnt write down because theyre these abstract half-thoughts, so I think I'll let those marinate until theyre full thoughts and share them with you at some later date

franflam (they are not sisters)

ahahahahaHAHA this is exactly what i was expecting people to send in when i said "controversial ships". no one is ready for one of my signature franflam tangents

under the cut:

you know the last time i did this ship bingo thing someone asked me about franflam too and i just flat out refused to respond because i didnt want to touch the discourse with a ten foot pole. either me putting my opinions here will get me cancelled or it will summon some people hopefully sane about this discourse. i love gambling

to preface, my honest opinions on the matter are that whatever the hell those two got going on in canon is queerbaiting. i say this as someone who bought star allies on a whim at gamestop as their very first kirb game like two years after it released, not even knowing kirby still made games at that time, and thus played the game with zero biases towards anything but yeah those two were written with a weird attachment to each other and it would be stupid to outright deny that. do i think franflam is canon though?: absolutely not and also i hate everyone who claims that with a passion. you could make a claim with a reasonable amount of evidence for either side of the argument and the fact that its even remotely possible both could be true at once, along with kumazaki himself either refusing to elaborate or confirm, or giving even More support to Either side is absolute bullshit and any sort of grey area here is totally his and the writers faults so hey can we all stop arguing about what the "correct" answer is when there literally isnt really one

anyways with that out of the way, heres all of the reasons i hate franflam without mentioning "potential incest" as a concern even once

their dynamic in canon is stereotypical angry black woman is overprotective of stereotypical dainty elegant white woman. hate that. gives me bad vibes. the whole "to show one character is in love with the other, they talk about their love interest nonstop every half second" trope is absolutely HANDS DOWN my absolute least favorite romance trope EVER. it drives me absolutely insane. thats the #1 way to get me to hate both of the characters and their relationship the fastest. holy shit shut up and focus on the story and whats happening around you instead of shoehorning mention of the other person into your words nonstop. hate that. i also hate the "person a is overprotective of their love interest" trope too, esp when it extends into jealously of the other person hanging out with others (sparkling pupupu world does this, for example). feels gross. can feel infantizing. if people see that as romantic good for you but i can not see it ever. its overly possessive. i think having a trio of mages and having two of them being separated and off fucking around on their own all the time as their "happy ending" is bad writing, especially when it comes to zans character being so heavily affected by her isolation from others and how hyness treated her AND YOU JUST GO AND SEPERATE THEM INTO FRAN+FLAM AND ZAN+HYNESS ALL THE TIME FOR SOME REASON HELLO. JUST MAKE ONE MAGE CHARACTER IN THAT CASE IF TWO OF THE TRIO HAVE NO DEVELOPMENT OR PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO FUCK OFF BY THEMSELVES. and then people who ship franflam also often end up shipping hynzan cause of that EWWWWWW GROSSSSSSS. also fran+flam being more close because the jambacult is a broken family that needs to heal Or them being more close because flam is an overprotective older sibling are INFINITELY more interesting to me as concepts than: "fran+flam are closer to each other and not zan because theyre dating and thus inherently dont care about zan as much because platonic relationships are always secondary to romantic". hate that. and the fandom. oh my God as people might be able to tell by all of the arrows on the bingo sheet i have fucking FEELINGS about this this needs a whole new paragraph

okay so. so 😍. i have this thing i call "red flag ships" where the ships are fine as a concept on paper but for some reason the shippers are just absolutely Rancid and that throws me off from liking the ship in its entirely and i get really sussed out by anyone who ships it. franflam is a red flag ship. i think the shippers have gotten so used to being yelled at by people who think theyre siblings that theyve pavlov'd themselves into being insanely hostile and aggressive to anyone who doesn't ship them. at least thats what i can tell from anyone whos Open and remotely loud about shipping them. istg i am not joking in the slightest when i say 95% of my interactions with people who Happen to be big or even decently into shipping franflam have been godawful. the convos dont even have to be around franflam i just think the ship inherently attracts awful people because its only aggressive toxic people who arent scared about shipping it openly. is that generalizing?: Yeah but thats just my personal experience. i have never met someone loud about liking franflam or who makes content for it that wasnt an awful asshole or yikes person in some way

that said, people who really like the ship but are quiet or lowkey about it usually end up being super chill and cool. its just the goddamn Fandom i have an issue with really. so anyone whos normal about it i am so sorry for you lmao

in a somewhat unrelated manner, i used to be somewhat close with someone who had franflam as their ultimate otp and God they fucking sucked. apart from redirecting every convo ever to be about franflam, they were also insanely nasty to anyone who even remotely saw them as siblings because they inherently saw it as an attack against franflam, so theyd always be making comments like "can you believe anyones stupid enough to see them as siblings" and "kinda misogynistic and lesbiophobic that metadede and marxolor are more popular than franflam when franflam is so blatantly canon" and yadayadayada they would say that shit completely unironically even right in front of me when they knew i hc'd them as siblings. i could complain up enough of a storm about that person and all of the insane things they said and did to fill up another 10 paragraphs but in general they were awful and really awful to me and multiple friends and you know what. i fucking hate the ship because of that too. sue me i cant stand seeing it around and i get grossed out by it.

on another note if i see anyone trying to push franflam as canon i will kick your ass. it might seem like im complaining about a problem that doesnt exist since tumblr is very anti-franflam, but on other sites its the opposite and if i had a nickel for every stupid "franflam is definitely canon and the only canon option and here's why" argument ive ever heard and could Easily debunk i could buy a fucking mansion. how to tell franflam shipppers its Okay if their ship isnt canon challenge: impossible (generalizing ofc, this whole rant is generalizing. take with a grain of salt. man i hate franflam)

Omg omg omg. Hi. Ok so idk if Shintaro would tell Takane about how he killed her in Route XXX (I kinda feel like he wouldn’t) but I definitely imagine that Shintaro is extremely guilty about it and the memory of it straight up haunts him at night sometimes. Dude probably has nightmares about it every now and again

Like imagine Shintaro randomly tightly hugging Takane and immediately apologizing over and over again and Takane is just “??” becuz she doesn’t know what happened!! She’s clueless! She’s not reminded of the horrors like Shintaro is!

Anyways thanks for coming to my KageTed Talk have a good day/afternoon/night

I AGREEEEEEE I AGREE COMPLETELYYYYY his ass WOULD NOT TELL HER but he's so haunted by it!!!!

shintaro sees takane and sees the person who was by his side over a hundred times and he even once killed. augh his self hatred and shit.... i want to explode theyre so best friends they love each other so much. they go everywhere together and are always together 👍

also them hugging ;_; _; ;_; shintaro is so bad with words so resorting to a hug makes sense. there's so much art of ene always clinging to shintaro and while takane (in my delusions) has her whole thing with touch i think she's naturally really clingy and touchy so she's also like. jumping on his back and surprise hugging him all the time and he's like AUGGHHH. i love drawing shintaro&takane hugs where takane holds him bc she's the comforter and shintaro is the pathetic wet washcloth that needs hugging.

GRRR GRRRR POST STR SHINTAKA CONFLICTS COMPLETELY UNRELATED BUT imagine takane having a hard time with something and the dynamic shifts and shintaro Has no idea how tackle the situation with a vulnerable takane. sorry the bit in the seventh novel where takane gets upset for like 30 seconds and shintaro's like. I DONT WANNA EVER DEAL WITH SEEING TAKANE DEPRESSED AGAIN. means so much to me.

ok i always talk abt it, takane would just rely on haruka instead, she also wouldnt go to shintaro yknow. but man shintaro would want to help he just doesnt know how to handle seeing takane like a real person. not so much like the ayano thing where he puts her in a pedestal, with takane is more like... he's used to seeing her play a certain role and when takane moves from it bc of her own problems, he's all out of orbit and he's like Whoa what. also like in the seventh novel he wants to scream and run if he sees her upset like Haha what are you doing ur the sneering girlie in my puter STOP CRYING STOP IT STOP IT THAT'S WEIRD.

i think interesting conflict could come from shintaro insisting to takane he's there for her and she should count on him and have take him into account whenever she needs a shoulder, like he makes a big deal out of that but Then when she really needs him he doesn't actually manage to show up. OR!!!! ANOTHER FUN ONE: he goes and tells her problems to haruka or ayano or worse EVERYONE ELSE because he assumes theyre gonna do a better job than him but he puts her in the worst position of vulnerability ever that she HATES AND IS VERY UNCOMFORTABLE IN. like imagine he goes and tells haruka for example. idk What. like she's having a hard time with something, probably about her sensory issues (primarily i think she'd talk to haruka, but imagining shintaro is asking her to count on him too and her actually considering it and doing it). and chose shintaro to talk but shintaro just passes it over to haruka. and takane's like. ur going behind my back telling SHIT I TRUSTED U WITH??? and shintaro's like erm erm. hehe. shes not mad about haruka or whoever else knowing, its shintaro running away that she gets angry at. sry i have a whole fic written in my head

anyways. shintaro is trying to be a good friend to takane but their dynamic is weird and strange and tends to fall back to You dont know anything about me and I know everything about you (takane) and With a side of youve known me in this life while I've known you for over a hundred other lifetimes (shintaro). they make me crazy!

aw hey another relationships ask. how about sae and akechi? (platonically if thats not obvious,) vastly interested in hearing your opinion

OH MY GOD I HAD NOT EVEN CONSIDERED THEM. CAN WE TALK ABOUT SAE AND AKECHI IVE BEEN DYING TO TALK ABOUT SAE AND AKECHI “youre literally about to talk about them” I AM}!??!?!? SWEET!!!!! literally i saw i had an ask and i was like oh man I’ll probably have to save it for tomorrow and then i saw what it was and was Instantly restored to Full Health. my HP bar is massive and so is my brain. anyway this is once again gonna turn into kind of a big post so

describe their canon relationship/dynamic

SAE NIIJIMA. AND GORO AKECHI. HAVE. THE LITERAL FUNNIEST DYNAMIC OF ANY CHARACTERS IN ANY PIECE OF MEDIA, EVER.

They’re, like, coworkers, which is already incredible bc they’re like. a 27 year old woman and a 17 year old boy. i dont actually know how old sae is but you get the idea. can you imagine being sae and working so hard to earn a position & respect as a young female prosecutor and then theyre like. can you confer with this Teenage Prettyboy. shes so strong for not just walking out.

But It Gets Better. Every interaction they have is stellar. The very first time we see them interact, which is also The First Time We See Akechi, At All, is, god i dont remember the Actual conversation they have i only rememebe the end of it, the most important part: akechi trying to get sae to buy him sushi and looking so miserable and pathetic when she’s like “only the cheap stuff :/“. Fucking…. incredible. 10/10 introduction to their dynamic all on its own. I cannot remember if akechi ever asks her to get him sushi again in the game or if im recalling something that happened in the anime or a fanfic. but. god its so funny. akechi, AKECHI, trying to pester this adult woman he works with into treating him to food. and her refusing. its incredible i could talk in circles abt how good this is for years.

and then it gets even funnier bc of like. the scene where sae realizes that Her Laptop Has Been Tampered With, and she asks akechi if He did it because they had a Disagreement recently. sae thinks akechi is petty enough to like. illegally take important and classified case information from her computer. over some difference of opinion that like, i imagine we see in the game, but if we do its so Understated that ive never noticed it. and she goes Did you try to get revenge on me. you bitch. like its so so funny

AND IT STILL GETS FUNNIER. BECAUSE. makoto says like. she got the impression sae had more trust & respect for akechi than for her. Sae is like “this guy I work with can be annoying and full of himself but he’s genuinely smart and he gets the job done i respect that” and then the guy in question is A TEENAGE CELEBRITY.

I don’t think we ever get to see akechi talk about sae all that much but like. It seems like he does Genuinely Like Her. And also is constantly passive aggressive at her!

In conclusion i. They’re incredible. They’re coworkers, theyre enemies, theyre very good friends with deep respect and even a kind of admiration for each other, theyre one businesswoman and the weird as hell teenager she works with that she feels compelled to be nice to because she has a little sister his age.

your ideal/headcanon version of it? how does it differ from how it is in canon & why is this your favorite version? any other alternate versions of it you enjoy?

Again yet another case of like. ^ All That is just like. Their actual canon interactions. I cant improve on that. The only way it can be made better is by having More of it. GOD I wish we got more of it. Oh also I think they talk shit about other people theyve both worked with together. With the utmost professionalism.

what do you like about their relationship, why is it interesting or enjoyable to you?

theyre a combo of “GOD i want akechi to have friends. so bad” + “This is the funniest thing ive ever seen. in my life” i wish i was big brain enough to come up with something as riotously hilarious as their dynamic. the whole concept is so singularly unique. i dont know if that was even INTENTIONAL. its all There and it just gets skimmed over. just….. completely fascinating

what about the individual characters involved? what does this relationship mean to them, what makes it unique among their relationships?

*sobbing and blubbering* what if… goro akechi… had friends and people he cared about… even if he wont fully admit it or tries to avoid it… Like legit that’s. theyre. theyre like friends. i keep going to say They Get Along but they do not get along. but they are. friends. mostly in a Work Friends kind of way but still. & like. i think itsjust inevitable that as an Older Sibling sae will see people younger than her & feel Urge To Watch Over Them And Make Sure Theyre OK even without any like Personal Attachment. *sae voice* i guess i have to take care of this annoying fucking kid because NO ONE ELSE IS!!

of course agaun they also both just have Professional Respect for each other. as well.

favorite interaction they have in canon

AGAIN. THE ONES I LISTED @ THE BEGINNING. AKECHI TRYING TO MAKE SAE BUY HIM QUALITY SUSHI AND SAE ACCUSING HIM OF BEING EVEN MORE PETTY THAN HE IS. 10/10 SITUATIONS

favorite interaction they have in your head/a situation you want to put them in

ACTUALLY I HAVE NO IDEA. I JUST WANT TO SEE THEM INTERACT MORE FULL STOP. i think anything they did together would be funny

take this w/ a grain of salt bc I'm a pretty romance neutral/positive aroace but man the qjaiden discourse is so ??? On like, both sides. because yes, you can ship qjaiden, she's aroace, some aroace people can and enjoy being in relationships, and yes, cc!jaiden is aroace and as far as we know she has no interest in romantic relationships at all. but the way people have been repeating, constantly, "aroace people CAN be in relationships!" It just feels so much like, "how dare you want the aroace character to be completely uninvolved with romance. that's a horrible stereotype" and it's like no??? some people are completely averse to having any romantic relationship at all. why is it bad people are headcanoning q!jaiden like that? Why are people saying "characters can be shipped outside of their cc sexualities" like? Yes??? and I know a lot of people have been assuming about her preferences which is the real problem. if jaiden wants to rp a romantic relationship then she can, because she knows what she's comfortable with. if she doesn't, that's great too. Acting like not wanting to ship her with anyone is somehow arophobic, or misogynist, or whatever is just?? and then the cop-out of "ok but qpr" in this fandom esp is like. with the exception of parrotduo, I think this fandom is really... weird about qprs? Like, ship what you want but some ppl treat qprs as "romantic relationship... LITE" like qpps can act romantic but some don't? and qprs aren't just a "not shipping" thing either. like "I'm not shipping them, it's a qpr" and like technically? but if someone just doesn't want anyone to have a romantic relationship or a QPR with someone then it's like "but soulmates/everyone feels love/everyone's family" like it's so determined to put a label on every relationship. like THIS is romantic, THIS is queerplatonic, THIS is familial, and just a weird obsession with relationship dynamics. obviously my examples aren't EVERYONE, I've seen people who are great with this and I can't see every opinion but I think people just need to be more normal about people who are apathetic/averse to relationships as a whole in media

YES YES EXACTLY

anon please know every word you said here is literally what ive been saying this whole time and its fucking CRAZY how few people get it. its about how people need to fucking justify being aroace and especially being aromantic. so many people both in and out of our community expect us to defend ourselves, to defend the ways so many of us refuse to engage in what is expected of people. we must still want some sort of intimacy, and sometimes it still isnt enough. even when qjaiden already has someone she considers a partner in a nontraditional matter with roier still you get people who just wont settle with letting aroace people and characters just.. not engage with amatonormativity. even aroallo people are told theyre disgusting and weird BY OTHER ASPEC PEOPLE for experiencing sexual attraction without the romance and its awful!!

and like i said at some point it stops even really being about the characters because im fully aware that qsmp is a media thats very focused on defined relationships. its one big family and theres a whole web of people in romantic and sexual and queerplatonic and simply platonic relationships alike and i wont fault the ccs for having fun because uh. its their characters. theyre not at fault for people being weird about them

but never are people allowed to just Be. i get judged for wanting qprs to be tagged as shipping, to still not want to see characters making out or being intimate just because it isnt romantic. actively harassed for it, even! because people didnt want to acknowledge such, because people got so hung up on the fact that i mentioned cc boundaries and wanting people to recognize kristin that they tunneled in on all that and completely left any genuine discussion in the dust, even actively smearing my name for it to the point where i saw people who were agreeing with me thinking that they were dissenting and they were right while i was wrong as if we werent on the same side

at that point.. its not actually about the characters, really, is it? and its not actually about the characters or boundaries here either. because even when i tried to come up with defenses so i wouldnt be mocked and not taken seriously for simply saying "this still touches on repulsion. i wish people saw qprs as shipping especially when theyre actively depicting them as intimate. i wish people recognized that queerplatonic and platonic are two different things. (isnt it weird, how it had to be marriage, how two friends couldnt care about each other more than nearly anyone else and still simply be friends, nothing else? isnt it weird how it just replaces amatonormative romance with something else, because you arent allowed to be close unless youre something other than "just friends"?)"....

people still got upset. people still were awful about it. to me, to those who stood by me, to the subject as a whole. and i wouldnt be surprised if theres people out there who are like how i was, feeling like they have to justify being uncomfortable. feeling like they have to justify being unapologetically aromantic and romance repulsed and nonpartnering and whatever else. feeling like they have to justify wanting qjaiden's aroaceness to be recognized as a reason to just let her be, no romance required.

at some point the constant chant of "aroace people can still love! aro people can still get into relationships!" stops being validation and starts going from "can" into "do" into "must". and then we're back at the beginning, and all the naughty naughty aspecs who still deviate from the norm fall right back into the cracks. because never, never, are you allowed to just exist if it isnt in a way that all the people on all these sites that still prattle on about how "love is what makes us human!" can approve of

Helloo! So, I’ve been wondering, how do you like to take notes? Like, what’s your note taking style in general? And how do you like to write your character and language study stuff? I’ve been kinda curious about it for a bit since you mention that you have these things and stuff sort of often. Like I think it’s been in the back of my mind since that time you mentioned in your notes that you write character studies in a journal. My mind kinda just latched onto that specific detail, most likely because I think physically writing stuff down is really cool and I could never.

(Hopefully this doesn’t sound too awkward? I’m really sleepy and my mind has been very jumpy today but I tried to sound normal, not sure if I succeeded)

no its so totally chill so basically i have like. MADNESS. im cutting this post up because i basically did a brain dump and its so long.

its pure and utter madness in this fucking journal there are clear notes and bullets and i mostly just dedicate pages upon pages depending on the length of the media, the complexity of the character, the amount of change throughout the series like. okay. for example. in my succession character study i have it set up so every character has 5 pages because theyre all pretty static and dont require a lot of notetaking because what i can observe from them is almost always set in stone, a base reaction from the character. drv3 however each character got 10 pages because 1) drv3 is long and its a lot of fucking text to go through 2) characters, even past their death, are referenced and spoken about and have things revealed about them a lot AND 3) the characters are REALLY dynamic and lots of events happen that change the characters in either slight or big ways that i need to note down and explain to myself WHAT EXACTLY caused this change and what the change was. other than these big moments i like to put down moments that i think are interesting or stand out to me upon revisiting the piece of media so when i first go through something it might not stand out because i dont have the knowledge that something is going to happen but upon rewatch or replay im like Wait a second. and this is why i never go into something and immediately start doing analysis because if i did that i would never notice the things that im meant to notice when doing a deep dive into a character

but on length again it really depends what im going into right. if youre going into a text-based 100+ hour game then you probably want to dedicate a lot of pages and time to understanding the characters than if it was like. a 5 season show with 10-14 episodes that are each an hour long. of course this also depends because breaking bad and succession are a similar length but breaking bad has way more dynamic characters than succession. in fact breaking bad is ALL moving parts so making a character study about breaking bad i would probably put all the characters down and dedicate like 8-10 pages per character and that might be overdoing it for some.

but other than characters its also important to recognise that the characters are in a setting. so what causes them to behave the way they do in this setting and do i know what best replicates it. drv3, theyre in a killing game. kokichi ouma would not act the way he does if he wasnt in a killing game and this is extremely important to recognise. kokichi mostly acts like he does because hes in a life-or-death situation and the way he behaves is him coping and keeping himself safe from other people. however, its also him hiding what hes planning so that things can go off without a hitch and without anyone stopping him because ultimately, he wants to end the killing game. he thinks that working with people is way too much effort and its way too complicated and it makes things harder and worse but most importantly, its just not for him. like hes ultimately fine with other people working together, but fuck the notion that he should work with anyone. hes boy genius and also thats so much work ON TOP OF doing the amount of work he was already doing. but outside of the killing game, this whole thing would just drop like theres nothing to work towards anymore. sure hes going to keep lying but maybe not be so cagey or brattish or rile people up as much as he does or as HORRIBLY as he does because theres no point to it. hes not in a life-or-death situation anymore so that act should just crumble. it would take a bit of work but yeah that facade should fall away and leave this joking prankster teenage boy. and a lot of people who dont like kokichi (not most not all just a lot) did not pay attention to the game and took everything at face value much like shuichi and i dont BLAME them i mean its kind of hard to read kokichi and figure out what the fuck hes talking about or what he means by the things he says like it took me a LONG FUCKING TIME to TRULY get kokichi. i had to do my character study before i actually truly understood him and now hes just in my head forever. like i will never let go of him. hes the best and i love him. but yeah you have to think about these things like why is this character like this and what IN THE SETTING causes this or AMPLIFIES this. likeeeee this is kind of a spoiler but tom is super into acting big and macho and very masculine right? at work he acts like The Man and he very clearly wants to play archetypal 1950s husband to his housewife, shiv, but shiv is never going to BE that. he knows this but he doesnt WANT to recognise this so he seeks this elsewhere through his work with greg. thus the tomgreggers win BUT ALSO we get to see two sides of tom: tom when he is sensitive and emotional and tom when he is playing up his machismo because he cannot stand NOT DOING THAT. thats like tom's THING. he is a midwestern boy who is in his 40s who grew up on this dream that he was the man of the house and therefor he was the most specialest man in the whole wide world to this wife that would make him dinner and fuck him and do whatever he pleased but he DIDNT get that and he is NOT THAT GUY. tom is INCREDIBLY sensitive and you can visibly see when he is anguished or excited to see someone (mostly greg) or depressed. he wouldnt be this way if he wasnt in this setting (running a right-wing news network that THRIVES on these values) or with the people he was with (most notably, a father in law who he wants to show respect to and receive respect from for the ENTIRETY of the show)

okay so character and setting and its impact. other than that WHAT ELSE. so a lot of the other stuff that i then look through is like. extra tidbits that i notice. my current succession character study has a list of chapters. so i have each character and their pages listed out for quick navigation (yes this means i number the pages) i have a 2 page tidbits section and then i have an INFINITE AMOUNT of researching pages. because nothing ever just stops at The Character Study no no no. i have researched:

shakespeare and what makes something shakespearean (took like. a few days? really wasn't that hard it was a well researched topic)

succession speak (i did this while i watched the show so i did some multitasking while doing character studies. updating kendall's page while also talking about his usage of buzzwords)

cops (fic specific dont worry its all bad as expected)

for drv3 i researched a lot of mental disorders, i did research into trauma, specifically for nameless (because that was ALWAYS what i was gearing up for) i originally did a lot of research into fbi and catching murderers so a lot of reading but then i pivoted and did research into non-euclidean structures, the language of horror (meaning i just read a lot of horror and took notes), and then i did The Action Plan.

The Action Plan brings everything together and is specific to me this is not necessarily essential for understanding the characters nor is the extra studying that has nothing to do with the piece of media. like succession requires that i research shakespeare and how they talk but it doesnt require me to know how the police work or what they think of themselves. the action plan is mostly for me to figure out what the hell i actually want to do. the action plan is also the place where i put down a final answer as to how i want to end the BIG FIC that im planning. for the drv3 character study, i do in fact have nameless' planned ending written down and it has surprisingly not really changed all that much aside from the weird bullshit that i wanted to throw in on top of the weird bullshit that is already going on in nameless. a lot of the time the action plan contains what i want the fic to end on.

right here im going to delve into writing advice because i love this shit and i know that people struggle with this okay If you. DON'T. Want to go into a story blind and want to plan it through and want to start with the ending (always what i recommend). Do NOT. Write the ending in the abstract. what i mean by this is like an ending to a story is almost always an arc. like. everything everywhere all at once the ending is a very drawn-out sequence taking place across a bunch of universes but ultimately are leading to the same thing: evelyn keeping joy around, and this means two things: keeping her in her life or alive at all. this is not an abstract ending. this is set in stone and pans out beautifully with the mixture of universes all in play. the ending is that evelyn gets to keep her daughter, joy, around in her life and saves every single world in existence. a different more abstract way to view the movie is that it begins with evelyn filing taxes in a stressful environment, extremely bitter and feeling alone on her father's birthday. it ends with evelyn doing taxes with her family. I may not remember this right so dont correct me this is what i remember BUT!!!! thats not the point the point is that its an incredibly abstract way to view the movie when thats not what the point of it all IS. the point of the whole movie is for evelyn to realise she fucked up A LOT and that doesnt make her a horrible person but it does mean she has to apologise and that joy DOES deserve an apology and joy DESERVES to live and she has to save her because she is her mother and she loves her and she is willing to be better if it means that joy gets to live or stay in her life. THATS the point but you miss the point when you frame it in that abstract way so endings always have to be very set in stone and multiple events, an entire ARC because that determines how you're going to write THE ENTIRE THING and what things you choose to include or remove. like if nameless ends with kaede killing everyone and the world exploding theres no reason for me to include these really hopeful messages and send the reader off course or to include symbols of love and immortality because that doesnt make sense when it ends the way that it does. even if it DID make sense it sends a WHOLE other message. even through hope, it is hopeless <- not the message i intended but because i wrote the ending the way i did, people are going to interpret it this way. this is also why im not a fan of my older work, propaganda, having like. multiple endings. because there really truly honestly is no reason why i decided to make it have 3 different endings other than I couldn't decide on one because I didn't plan the ending out before I started writing the story.

This is why the action plan exists. my osomatsu san character analysis is lacking this action plan most likely because i kept it somewhere else probably online but it doesnt matter because i dont REMEMBER it existing so it probably DIDNT exist. i can remember my nameless action plan that was 2 years ago (yes i went and checked to make sure) i didnt even remember i wrote other drv3 fics other than the multichapters out now and a good song never dies SO WHAT IS GOING ON THERE. if i am not referring to the action plan then im clearly not going to have a good grasp on what the hell is going on in there

of course those that may know me are reading this like "you dont plan. your stories" And they're right. I don't. the action plan section is solidifying how i view the characters, what i think should happen with them because i LOVE juggling plot lines, but most importantly, the ending. a solid REAL ending not an abstract version of it or an idea i mean like REAL SOLID FOUNDATION. as an example for the nameless ending IM NOT ABOUT TO TEL LYOU HOW NAMELESS ENDS DONT WORRY i have it set up so that i have the setting, the major event that happens, the effect of this, the aftermath with all the characters, and then if i want a key detail in there that i think is important. this comes FIRST. ALWAYS. i can only ever start with the ending when im planning a story because otherwise i have no idea what to do with all the other moving parts and i add too many variants and then i end up with 3 different endings and i cant choose because im indecisive and ive put out TOO MANY SIGNS there are TOO MANY WAYS this could end for the readers.

but yeah. i mean i make it sound way more complicated than it is but i mean this so seriously doing character studies are so fun. i love immersing myself in a piece of media. this is a real fucking story i got so deep into drv3 character study that i started laughing like kokichi. and that lasted for a few weeks or something i dont remember. but really doing character studies is all up to how YOU do it. its important to note that when im going through a piece of media for analysis, i first comb through the parts that are most important for me to understand a character. so drv3 the character hangouts, their chapters where they shine the most, important scenes that i can remember off the top of my head, and then i go through the whole thing over again. im doing this with succession right now though its kind of hard because succession is a very all killer no filler show so choosing the MOST IMPORTANT episodes is based entirely on who is important and what important moment happens and if that affects EVERYONE. i will have to watch through succession again and i will have to see what i missed, if i missed anything, which is likely a no. you can do whatever notetaking style you want, whatever works for you, but i love doing brain dumps and then going back and highlighting what is important to me for quick reference. im just not a very organised person and im not ever going to become one so i might as well embrace it and work around it right if plans bore me i might as well do things on the seat of my pants because thats the only way to keep me engaged

VERY sorry this was so long but i love talking about this stuff and i love dumping my brain out. this is very therapeutic for me i think

For hc ideas,, how about Yuki and Kenta? I think they can have an interesting dynamic!!! Or if you want another maybe Hyoma and Ryo?

Ooooooh you gave me two interesting ones!

Yuki and Kenta:

-they arent really close at first. Kenta left too early on to see Yukis character arc (which he has in my rewrite in my head okay he has character this time). Yuki as well rpimarily knows Kenta through stories Madoka and Gingka (and Benkei) tell.

-i think after ryuga dies kenta gets a bit quieter and more serious, but also spends a lit of time around the gang. Because Yuki lives with Madoka, he and Kenta end up in the same vicinity a lot.

-eventually Kenta joins Yuki for stargazing or something and they start to relax around each other.

-they have kinda similar nervous excitement energy like if theyre excited over something they tend to babble on a bit too long and struggle to form their thoughts a lot. Yukis a bit better at recollecting himself and Lenta starts copying some of his mannerisms.

-kenta becomes a history nerd. Like a bit of archeology a bit of ancient history all that stuff. He kinda wants to explore ruins when hes older. He and Yuki end up talking science and myths a lot.

-they both really really enjoy battling each other like yuki is a very nonstressful opponent for kenta to fight and they have really close skill levels.

-they tag team for tournaments sometimes (bc benkei is with kyoya and yu is with tsubasa or tithi)

-they always hang out together at legendary blader meet ups like they are the bestie gang during those things.

-also uhhh idk idk but they got similar gender vibes to me i think they like shopping for clothes together.

-neither of them can cook like madoka has TRIED TO TEACH THEM but they are kinda hopeless so if madoka isnt around they order take out and watch baking competitions.

-sarcastic af friends.

-i think yuki and kenta have a slightly different relationship then kenta has with most his friends bc yuki views kenta a bit more like an equal than a little kid. Like he met kenta much later than madoka and gingka did and kenta grew up a lot in his arc. I think therefore kenta goes to him for somewhat different issues, and also doesnt tend to think of yuki on a pedestal.

-at one point in their friendship kenta is having like a really bad day dealing with ryugas death and yuki finally opens up about his grandpas death and like they both just talk a lot and they Cannot figure out the others issues at all but they both feel a lot better having spoken about it.

Onto Ryo and Hyoma! Bitch ive got so much-:

-Hyoma hero worshipped the fuck out of Ryo when he and Gingka were kids. I feel like Hyoma used to hear Ryo tell some stories and knew of Ryo as the guardian before they formally meet, but then Gingka asks if he wants to join them in exploring the forest and Hyoma is absolutely stoked.

-i think Ryo likes having a kid so interested in the history of Koma Village around. Like, it makes him think of it better. Hes always had a bit of a bitter position with his role but seeing how happy this knowledge makes Hyoma reminds Ryo of the good moments he had learning about his home.

-he also likes the knowledge that if Gingka doesnt want to be the guardian, Hyoma will probably want to be

-Hyoma and Ryo never spent too much time together without Gingka, but when Gingka makes it known that he doesnt really wanna be the guardian of Koma Village, Ryo takes Hyoma off for camping to ask if Hyoma wants the role.

-then Ryo goes and fake dies

-Hyoma absolutely hates his guts for dying. Like, absolutely ripped up inside. Kinda blames Ryo for everything that happened to Koma Village and cannot put it to words. This gets even worse when Ryo reveals himself.

-during metal masters Ryo actually visits Koma from time to time to see if Hyoma needs any help. Hyoma will kinda give him mundane jobs to do until Ryo has to leave, and refuse to really speak to him.

-but Ryos persistent and eventually Hyoma blows up at him, blaming him for everything. Then he runs away to like some place he found while exploring the mountain and gets really guilty for all the things he said.

-surprise surprise Ryo finds him and reveals he once also found this place after an argument with his grandma (the previous protector of Koma Village). They purposefully keep some spots secret so the next guardian can find them all alone.

-they talk and basically hyoma blames him for not being a good enough protector but admits he wouldnt have been able to do better and like mourns the fact koma will have always been destroyed. He also kinda asks how Ryo has been able to move on, yknow, getting a job at the wbba and all that (that being a daughter-)

-Ryo admits hes actually really torn up still about the direction his life has taken. Hes trying to do his best as the director of the wbba but misses koma village, and doesnt feel as though he was doing enough. He also mourns like missing Gingka growing up, and how now all the people he knew are growing and leaving. Hyoma really relates to that, and it helps these two reconnect.

-Ryo continues to visit and help Hyoma rebuild, especially like some of the more historical parts of the village that Ryo knows better.

-Post canon Hyoma is around all the time. Ryo cant escape him. Hyoma is besties with both his kids and is just always there. Ryo doesnt mind though, even if Hyoma, Hikaru and Gingka are so mean to him when theyre all together.

-Hyoma and Ryo both really like making up fake lore about Koma Village. Theyll just baldfaced lie about some things and no one but Hokuto can ever tell. They have lied to all of Gingkas friends at least once. They band together and write a book of just lies once in hopes to mess up some future guardian. For funsies.

-Ryo tends to remind Hyoma not to take everything so seriously, that part of rebuilding should be remembering the good times, the ways life was fun.

-they just. Ryos such a mentor to him but Hyoma also stepped out of Ryos shadow when he was dead and truly took over as the protector. Ryo often defers to Hyoma on any matter related to Koma out of respect, and Hyoma comes to respect Ryos opinion once again.

-Ryo takes Hyoma, Gingka and Hikaru all on a vacarion once where they bounce around the world for two weeks. His reason for taking Hyoma is that Hyoma should always have a sense of the wider world hes a part of, so he can understand why the small world he preserves is such an important part of it.

I got sick and didnt feel like watching dsmp so I just watched a bunch of random movies I found on my german piracy site of choice for almost a week but now Im better and Im about to watch Eryns origin story and idk man, I just felt like sharing my thoughts about that guy so far

First of all, Im so curious about this concept of any dsmp character having an origin story bc its like. their origin story is that they showed up. thats it. Like yeah, a lot of people very obviously have histories going back to before they showed up on the smp but theyre never really elaborated upon. Niki and Wilbur would kill for eachother with no hesitation, no explaination needed, stuff like that

Also, Im curious about some of the demon lore we'll potentially get bc like, demons arent a thing in minecraft the way slimes or endermen are but Eryn said he is one and also actually confirmed that BBH is one as well (I think he did anyway, I know its been popular fanon for a while but I dont remember it being brought up in canon before he said it), so Im curious how theyre gonna be integrated. My prediction is that theyre basically just gonna be like, the nether-equivalent of humans. Like, in the overworld the humans (or player characters ig) are the only sapient creatures and in the nether its demons.

But thats general lore stuff, now I wanna talk about my guy Eryn !!!! :D

I like him so much and idek why. Hes just a fun guy a fun lil guy I love him :D

I guess the best way to describe it would be like, Im very charmed by him. I love that hes like, this edgy-lookin ninja guy who likes to cause trouble, hes really the chaotic teenage boy this server has been missing ever since every other teenage boy has either been horrifically traumatized or is Purpled. I also like that, despite him being this chaotic teen boy who does what he wants, he seems to very sincerely admire Eret and listens to them for some reason ?? I say 'for some reason' because Eret has kinda been old news for a long time, like the fact that theyre a king doesnt mean anything because actual governments just kinda stopped mattering to everyone except for Wilbur and Quackity, but that honestly just makes it more charming. Eryn and Erets entire dynamic is just so good idk why, but its so comfy and chill in a way where you can tell theyre still just aquaintances but its still so nice yknow. This kinda ties into my previous point as well, I really like how he put a shit ton of effort into getting good knight armor and honestly really wants to be a knight while also demonstrating that hes willing and able to like, steal shit from the prison

Another thing that I find really interesting is his complete and utter lack of connection or interaction with Dream. Like, he arrived after Dream had long been in prison and while he left an undeniable impact on literally everything in the server, no one really. talked about it? Eryn seemingly had to go out of his way to get any kind of information because when Dream was still locked up everyone was all like "welp, the big badscary villain man is gone, and we're all safe so we dont have to worry about him anymore and we'd rather not talk or think about him lest we spoil everyones good mood" and then when he escaped they were all like "oh no, we're already feeling so anxious and bad bc we dont know where he is so we'd rather not talk about him lest we make everyone feel even worse when everything is already so terrible". His mindset is that Dream hasnt harmed him personally and hes never really interacted with him so he doesnt really have an opinion on him, which is very interesting as well. On one hand, it seems a bit naive to think that way when literally everyone keeps telling him how horrible that guy is, but also, while none of the conflicts on the dream smp have ever been caused by mob mentality, they have certainly been exercabated by it, so i guess its better to have less of it

I do have mixed feelings about that though. I feel like I'd need to see Eryn interact with Dream in order to really form an opinion on that and I feel like they might actually do that. Like, Eryn is Tommys friend and I think if Dream somehow found out that he doesnt have any negative feelings towards him on the basis of "he hasnt harmed me personally", he would definitely try to exploit that and I think that could be really interesting. If that doesnt happen in canon I might write an AU about it, probably not straight up villain!Eryn but maybe leaning more towards chaotic neutral idk

SHADOW

HI IM BACK I was splatting with my brother :) SHADOW (THE HEDGEHOG)

Sexuality Headcanon: this hedgehog is gay. he is gay I think out of all the sonic characters this is the sexuality headcanon i am most 100% solid and sure on. that hedgehog is gay

Gender Headcanon: OH NONBINARY 1000000% Perhaps even agender Idk he is also figuring it out because he's from 50 years ago and just woke up and learned about all this like months ago. But this hedgehog has never given a fuck about being part of any gender binary and he doesnt have it all figured out but he knows that not being a boy or a girl has felt more him than anything before and he's awesome basically

A ship I have with said character: well I've mentioned in the sonic post that I do like s/nkn/xadow and thinks that when actually written true to their characters they have a lot of interesting dynamics that could say a lot about each other. but nobody is normal about them and actually writes them as Them so instead everytime i see the respective ships i get annoyed. but also its not that big of a deal. anyways kn/xadow in particular has so much potential like god when you are the last of your kind and have no surviving family and you have been easily manipulated by bad people into being tools for them and you'd think that'd be a unique experience nobody could relate to but actually he gets it. He understands what its like having a past you still dont know all about and desperately wanting to know what your here for, what you exist for-- and youre both slowly figuring it out. together. anyways

A BROTP I have with said character: I already talked about it but godddd shadow and rouge and just team dark as a whole. when he woke up he pretty much had nothing and nobody left for himself even the whole planet has moved on from him but then he makes his first like close relationships again with team dark and they mean. so so much to him. Like they Know but also they dont know just how important to him they are, to have people once again he can trust wholeheartedly to be there for him when he falls and he will be there for them too. OH I FORGOT TO MENTION HIM AND TAILS TOO. he's like the awkward cool and quiet older brother that just kinda slowly happened because tails needed some of his assistance on an experiment and then the moment shadow showed that he was following a lot of the tech talk and even giving his own thoughts back well it was over. theyre nerds and talk about nerd things now every time shadow visits and hold a lot of respect and admiration for the other. they think the other is so cool, basically.

A NOTP I have with said character: Well sh/douge obviously but also sh/dria like FUCKING S TOP THATS HIS FUCKING SISTER. Also even if she wasn't like making that relationship out to be romantic just cheapens the whole thing so much and just feels like bad writing and one of those things where people cannot see that a "boy" can girl deeply about a girl without it being a romantic thing. theyre siblings and best friends shut the fuck up!!!!!

A random headcanon: oh god how do i choose. this is going to get long im putting the rest under a read more

well I think his favorite pastimes are working on his silly motorcycle, taking care of his like 10 chao, reading and listening to music.... he doesnt relax much but he likes to read about flora and fauna a lot i think... As well as different modern science books I think living on the ark has made him a science nerd and he wants to catch up on what he's missed in those 50 years.... I also talked about this in call but I think everyone should know that Shadow very much has a sweet tooth I think. There really wasn't many Sweet food in the ark so its all a very new experience for him and he likes stuff like cheesecake and ice cream so much. I also think at the same time he is a pickier eater than most mobians especially when it comes to more unconventional foods like insects. He may be a hedgehog but he grew up on human food and human food standards he sees rouge putting like mealworms in her salad or something and he looks at her like she's insane. sonic offers him crickets and he makes the excalibur face. Also lets throw in another headcanon for funsies but I think shadow kind of has an interesting detachment, almost, to his past self. he remembers most of his past now, and very much still holds the same attachments and love for gerald and maria and to his home, but what I mean is like. His personality, perspective, outlook... they were Different back then, and between the repeated memory loss and all of the trauma he almost feels himself to be a separate person from the shadow of 50 years ago. for any aitsf mutuals think like date but on a less extreme level. Anyways this stuff doesn't come up too much cause there really isn't anyone left who knew him 50 years ago, but lets say something like in the comics happened where he got to see maria again for a temporary time. She would talk to him and want to spend time with him the same way she did 50 years ago but I think he'd realize the Shadow she's seeing is not the Shadow he is. Or at least, not what he thinks he is. does that make sense.

General opinion on said character: he is the coolest character in the world hes so awesome and silly and i care so much about him shadow has always been my favorite character even when i was little so ysee i think about him lots.

i try my BEST not to let fandom get in my way of how i view ships bc i always see ships in a non canonical way. so if you want you can fold a ship into whatever way you want whether its aus, fix it fics, or whatever. i especially try not to let the popularity of a ship get in the way of how much i like a ship, im very fond of rarepairs and crackships but i dont consider myself someone who cant bring themselves to like popular ships or even brags about liking.. ANYTHING that isnt mainstream

but there comes a POINT where when ALL of the content you see for a character youre fond of is ABOUT A SINGLE SHIP that you start hating the ship and maybe even the other character involved. it hurts even more when its a ship you fell out of love with.

yes, im talking soudam AGAIN bc kazuichi has rotted my brain so badly that i feel like i cant even go a single day without thinking of him, AND I BARELY EVEN INTERACT W/ THE DR FANDOM ANYMORE. one of my ocs was just a genderbent au i made of him that looked distinct enough i just took it and ran. thats how bad it is. (tbh i do just like the color pink and... sharp.. teeth.. so thats probably why. hes pathetic too which just makes it x2 as good)

look, i dont think that ppl who ship soudam are inherently bad ppl. i dont really care about what ppl ship as long as theyre 1) not shipping real ppl and 2) not shoving it in other peoples faces. and i dont see any soudam shippers directly doing that. i was a soudam shipper, and honestly, i can see why ppl ship it. its an interesting dynamic.

bbbutt.. i dont ship it!  i personally dont care for it anymore, or even just general dr stuff. i should probably get into dr stuff more sense i feel like other than skullgirls and cookie run, im a bit lost when it comes to fandoms nowadays. but i still really like kazuichi and, by extension, sonia and their ship sounia. so every now and then i look for content abt them whether its for comfort or horniness, or just bc i want to. and a big theme i see is soudam. everywhere. its not unbareable especially on a site like tumblr where i can block certain tags and words. but even with that blocking, soudam can still clog it up meaning its harder for me to find content i like.

its even worse when some of that content is intentionally made to spam tags. an example would be what happened on instagram a while back, im not sure if that many other people noticed it, where ppl would spam dr ship tags with things such as “hey ur ship sucks xoxo”, feet, and in the worst case scenario, gore and self harm.

its even worse (take a sip everytime i say that) when you bring in stuff like antis and proshippers which, IS A CAN OF WORMS I DO NOT WANT TO GO INTO. i dont use either label, i hate antis but i really fucking hate proshippers. which is why i dont like ppl labeling all sounia shippers as proshippers because.. no. no i am not. you cant dictate what side someone is on in a silly shipping war based of a single thing they like. i know damn well there are sounia shippers who are proship, anti, somewhere in the middle, and the same can be said abt soudam shippers. which is why i hate how soudam shippers are seen as morally good and sounia shippers are seen as gross. i just wanna see some pathetic lil guy try and fail to woo a girl, i dont wanna argue about what ship is superior. neither are illegal, so they are both equal.  

in conclusion; there are and will be a lot of soudam shippers. i dont care. i just want to be left alone, but soudam is hard to ignore. dont try to call any soudam shippers poopyheads, lets all just try to be nice and respect one another. sorry if this seems like a hate rant, because it is. i am frustrated. didnt mean for this to become an 8 paragraph essay, but thats just what happened. 

potential

one of my niche interests is binge watching. i am almost always watching something. one point in my life i ran out of things to watch. well, not literally, obviously, but i only wanted to watch certain things i completed them. stuff i did not wanna watch very often ends up being bad and boring than not. so as my last straw i have resorted to all languages. i watch content regardless of genre, language, country, age restriction(ahem thats not to say i am not old enough). anyways, during this process kdramas stuck with me as something to watch while i go to sleep or when i dont want too much plot and worry about or even think about it. they never came across having potential to me. i know a lot of others out there would disagree with me but this is just what i feel. theyre always slow paced, very bright, when not very bright trying too hard to be too dark(and failing miserably), no plot that hooks us up. but, BUT, recently, very recently, just 2 hours ago i watched a kdrama named long time no sex. obviously started off bc of the title but god it is so good. i mean, i have only watched 2 episodes really and that is the problem. so far everything they have shown me i cannot wait another 2 days for another two episodes. basically a married couple with no kids, pretty in debit and paying off loans and interests, a couple of insurances, but live comfortably. they start blackmailing others involved in multiple relationships. now the plot might not be the most interesting one ive watched, but the way everything is portrayed bw these two main leads, is more than unique. truly there are only a handful of series or movies that show this comfortable couple dynamic interestingly and god did this drama nail it. though they were a very active couple, they just stopped having sex few months or years back unintentionally and neither of them have had a problem with it. how they never stopped loving each other even though they havent been intimate is portrayed really well. the husband is literally the greenest flag everrrr. let it be when he remembers every single detail about them from 7 years ago or when he tries hugging her and reassures her that its fine if they dont have sex, or when he talks about how having sex is not a duty for married couple and when he sees that shes actually interested he recommends trying to get in the feel by telling each other things they like about one another, every single thing he likes about her is spoken so well and it is very evident how much he loves her. whenever theres a disagreement both of them proceed to talk it out in literally less than 2 minutes. though it might not be realistic, i mean, why is it not realistic? exactly! that is what should be going on and not hours of unnecessary arguments. he is really never afraid of being "lady like" and that makes him all the more manly because he is always very thoughtful and considerate about her and deals softly. no fragile masculinity exists here. i could go on about this man but ill stop lol. i can guess what the future episodes could host but i dont want to this time. this time i just want to be intrigued by it. i cannot wait for them to start having sex again, or its ok even if they decide they are better off this way(which would be totally unexpected). ok i just said that about two characters in drama. guess whos crazy? AND, and the fucking trust they have in each other, shed trust him with her life. even though he is foolish at times she balances it out. when his car got totalled and she found out that he dint tell her she figured a way to get him money instead of getting back at him or starting a fight(not that hed let a fight sustain or theyd go on for more than a minute) bc she knew theres no point in getting upset now that the cars gone and the intention behind his lie is nothing. its almost as if they know each other and communicate. crazy right. its almost as if they love each other.

woah, it's definitely going on my watch list now, few posts i've seen talking or reviewing jjba always used complicated gargon so i could never properly pay attention to what they were saying but reading your post was v nice and i can assume you like it a lot, when did you start watching if i could ask?(/notforced)

also thank you for avoiding the spoilers lol, i'm tempted to search up spoilers but now i just wanna enjoy this series and the manga properly so i'll avoid those (really the only 'spoiler' i've ever seen is the "it's me dio" meme, if that even counts as a 'spoiler'?) 

out of curiosity i just searched what j giel looked like, interesting design choices? ig? ;; (/halfjoke) but once again ty for the major spoilers warning, i'm kind of itching to find out for myself now haha

i never realized the artstyle of jjba has changed so much actually? i've seen late 3-early 4 artstyle so finding out about this style diversity is actually so cool, it really matches the years they were in well, early part 1 reminds of me some of the hero comics i've seen from around those years as well. this chart manages to show the changes v well though, it looks so pretty

and now that you mention it, kira dude does look like david bowie now that i think about it, and woah he has an entire season/arc? is he a major character or some kind? (/genquestion) i'm looking forward to watching that season now, the 'slice of life/detective drama' combo sounds interesting and i've never thought to combine those before so i'm hyped (/gen)

i just searched rohan and joseph's designs too, they look super cool! could I ask whose your favorite and disliked characters in csm?

(long post,,,,, dont press read more if u dont really care cuz . long post)

yes it should!!!11! i started watching/reading it in... 2019/2020 i think. it was when i lived in my old house so it was sometime around there my brother actually recommended it to me!! we watched it together, and we've watched every season (other than the latest- stone ocean. we watched it separately for that one) together and it honestly probably is part of why i love it so much because i generally associate him with it haha

you shouldnt spoil it AT ALLL its such a great series and stone ocean was so bad for me because i already knew the entire ending (cuz i read the manga) so watching the anime. was intensely sorrowing because it was all so stunningly beautiful and heart moving and yada yada but i knew what was gonna happen!!! all the suspense was gone!!!

and and and. i feel like even with j geil it just shows how DYNAMIC or whatever the art style is.. like

hes DISGUSTING but it fits!!! even when you watch the show the overall style change may really not register until you sit back and think aboutit because its like a gradual switch, a really pretty switch though since it really just shows the magaka (hirohiko araki) growing and learning with the series its really beautiful

im slightly sure kira was based off him but i really cant be sure his design can 100% be since alot of things in the show starting part 3 i think are like references to bands and songs-- kira for example's power, killer queen, like the song by queen has a power called bites the dust and sheer heart attack, just like the albums/songs from queen aswell its really smart isnt it?? and kira really is important. i wont elaborate but hes really important in season 3/part 4 (season one has the first two parts, "phantom blood" and "battle tendency" then every part after is its own season-- probably because part 1 and 2.. well.. are different to the rest- youll see why) if u watch it youll either love him cuz hes kinda lovable when u ignore his Biggest "Flaw" (a character flaw, like a trait not flaw as in story flaw). or youll love him cuz every scene with him atleast to me is really. uhh i forgot the word in english : D enthralling? rohans designs are honestly. the best designs in jojo to me and the main reason for that is kinda cuz theyre pretty not bizarre (in comparison.)

it also has to do with part 4's coloring aswel, like i cant find the image but his hair is just. blue one time (and purple i think) just cuz they never really do that uch after part4 which is so sad.. but its okay because it makes part 4 more unique also. rohans outfits change it might not seem like much but rohans outfits. change probably becuz hes araki's self insert so hes always making him cool (like in stone ocean where,,, uhh.. basically something happens and time is speeding up a bit, and no mangakas can make manga becuz their ink drys up too fast, and rohan is the only mangaka whos still pushing out manga- cuz of his powers) Im. rambling. UHH ive started chainsaw man only recently so i cant go as in depth as jojo but once ive finished. well if i finish ill definitely have new opinions for now though i love kobeni

shes just. she shes!! MEE :sob: shes just so relatable i love her so much (SAME WITH ASA. BUT I JUST. LIKE KOBENI MORE) i also HAVE to say i like denji for the same reason i like joseph really hes just hilairious (though it really depends on your sense of humor. if u dont like dark...? i wouldnt say dark... humor, but definitely not for like. 12 year old or something you know. u might not like denji- or csm in general

the character i dislike has to be...... uh makima i guess i wont say why cuz. MAJOR SPOILERS!! but shes kinda :thumbsdown: to me HER WRITINGS GOOD AND I LIKE. HER EXISTING but as a person.......

Oh you listen to TMA?, well would you recommend it?

i did listen :D!! not much anymore haha but i was real into it back in like 2020 (: and well . that is a VERY layered question bc i have very mixed feelings about tma as a podcast sorry anon im sure u were hoping for a cut and dry yes or no but alas .... i ramble

so basically short answer is that if you want to get into non-dnd fiction podcasts and be an active member of fandom for them i would highly recommend you listen to tma not even out of tmas own original quality but just because its So popular and its made Such an impact on the fiction podcast landscape . i would recommend wtnv for a similar reason but also just because wtnv is just great and a wonderful listen (and my special interest lol) - SOOO many people around you are gonna be referencing tma and referencing the entities and listening to at leaset a good chunk of it at least once will make your experience in the fiction podcast fanbse more enjoyable because when people say stuff like . idk "sydney would be a corruption avatar" youll understand wtf theyre saying . so just on a very functional level id recommend you listen to it just so you understand the references that people around you make (:

whether i would recommend tma based on its own merits is .... more complicated . because tma is one of those pieces of media where the good attributes are REALLY INCREDIBLY GOOD and the bad attributes are very noticeable, and some of those can even be the same thing - for example, while ive had many in depth discussions about how poorly implemented i think the entities system is and how frustrating it is that theyre so poorly balanced throughotu all the episodes, i still think its one of the most genius pieces of world lore ive seen and does an AMAZING job at accurately encapsulating every single fear you could think of.

so basically, while i would recommend tma both because it has some VERY amazing aspects and because it had such an Impact on fiction podcasts that itll be tricky to avoid it if u wanna keep getting into narrative podcasts, i would recommend you examine it critically while you do so. like by all means have fun its GREAT the horrors creepy its popular for a reason!! but also make sure youre able to examine the writing flaws, both the ones that are just writing issues (like the pacing problems) and the ones that probably come to mind more when you think of "examining media critically" (like the narratives Very odd relationship to the police) . basically i would recommend checking it out and i think its very likely youd enjoy it but dont get too attached to it that you cant handle valid criticism because there is a LOT of valid criticism to be made

also ive heard stuff about ethics issues with the production company itself, im not really caught up on which parts of that are real and what the accepted appropriate ways to handle it are (like i said im not actively keeping up with tma anymore so i dont really know much about the good or the bad rn), but basically i wouldnt contribute to the the magnus protocol kickstarter (its got enough money as it is) and would instead support your favorite smaller podcasts instead (: theres loads to support if u wanna support a podcast financially!! blue mayfield (creator of camp here and there) in particular is struggling quite a bit, thats a good place to support (:

but again to wrap it all around this isnt a post dissuading you from listening i WOULD suggest you listen to it to understand what other people say about it in podcast spaces as well as because it genuinely has some really good creepy episodes and strong compelling characters w interesting dynamics and some really good examinations into themes like what it means to be human or the nature of fear and where it comes from . its definitely an enjoyable listen and one id recommend listening to at least once to anyone who wants to get into fiction podcasts and interact with the fanbase in any way!! i loved it in 2020 and i still adore many of the characters now (: i just have a lot of emotions about it lol im sure this is a way longer and more convoluted answer than you were hoping for whoops </3

Ah I finished the newest season on My Little Pony g5... I forgot what theyre even still calling this gen. Is it just "A New Generation?" So much of this show is just unremarkable like that. There's nothing going on and while I obviously speak from the perspective of a grown adult, I also can't fathom many children being that enthralled with the show either.

There's definitely a significant downshift in the target demographic. Even season 1 of g4, the "babiest" of the seasons, was never oriented this hard towards literal babies lol. And again, I can't even imagine young children enjoying this show more than, say, g4 -- which is also on Netflix and just 1000% more quality. If I had a kid and they wanted to watch something, why on earth would I ever choose g5 over g4? What does g5 have over it? Genuinely every aspect is just a total downgrade, offering nothing original or creative, and worst of all, it outright relies on itself standing on the shoulders of g4!! If you want the "best" experience with g5, then you ought to come in familiar with g4, which is just begging viewers to feel that downshift I was talking about.

Like if I was told to make a new generation of ponies for a new young audience, idk, I would choose one or the other: either go hard on being based on g4 and effectively make it a sequel/continuation, and stay consistent with the established lore, OR I'd go the opposite and abandon all/most previous lore, starting with a clean slate that any dumpy 6 year-old can keep up with. Instead we get this back-and-forth cocksucking of g4, g5 is just incapable of making moves on its own, it relies so much on g4 having been there.... UGHHH!

Beyond that, everything else is just worse. The animation in particular is so fucking bad and a BIG reason why I wouldnt make a kid watch this lol. It's barely competent most of the time, but there's so little heart, so little personality (which can be said of the whole production). You know those early ref sheets cartoonists get from the lead artist/animator? And it shows "dos and do-nots" about how to animate characters, e.g. "don't make them stand in straight lines" "add dynamics to their posture" "exaggerate expressions." Yeah well they got the notes flipped fucking backwards for this season. Characters are CONSTANTLY as stiff as cardboard, barely moving at all to accentuate their dialogue -- dialogue that DOES have character and personality! It feels so sad that the VAs probably imagined a better animated cartoon and thus acted the way they did, but it only highlights how stale the animation is when you have so much life in a character's voice, like urgency or quirkiness, only to see the pony barely lift a hoof or turn their head. Gravity also just exists differently in this world, where something can bounce on the ground like a rubber ball two times, and then drop dead where it next lands, not even a slight roll or sway. It's bad enough the characters arent the most vibrant nor is the world very colorful or engaging.... but then youre looking at them and they barely even freaking move.

And the characters. Theyre trying, but its not doing enough. These five just do NOT have any chemistry worth watching. None of them have motivations, between them all is maybe like three quirks, but otherwise they have nothing interesting going on. Hitch and Zipp could almost fill the same role as being these "investigators" so it's odd that there's two of them, which sucks because for the plots this generation wants to make, a detective-focused personality is a great fit -- just weird that it's two people basically. Sunny is very plain and is made especially dumb for the sake of conflict; Izzy remains okay but it's so clear theyre just taking notes off of Pinkie Pie. And then Pipp, just shut the fuck up. I went from disliking Pipp to hating her, the idea of "social media influencer" as a character in a kids cartoon is so frustrating, especially since they have no intent on exploring this concept in any interesting way lol. Her trait is just "she's popular" and sometimes she sings, which is a weird aspect to focus specifically on in a world traditionally known for everyone breaking out into song lmao.

So yeah nothing exciting going on.... The villain is extremely lackluster, but Im glad there's at least some sort of consistent uhhhhhhhhh "threat" I guess. Misty is sometimes interesting, but the dumbness of this plot ruins most chances of finding her appealing. Maybe she'll be more interesting once she gets the inevitable redemption/turn-around, I predict she'll end up being the second unicorn to the main cast, but I doubt she's going to really sync with anyone or improve the chemistry. Overall a very let down experience and probably the weakest post of g5 yet lol.